The Legal Aid Society–Employment Law Center

Brown Bag Lectures

The Elizabeth J. Cabraser
2010 Summer Brown Bag Lectures in Public Interest Law

Tuesday, June 8 Beyond the LSAT: New Measures for Law School Success

Marjorie M. Shultz, Professor of Law, University of California Berkeley School of Law

Rebecca Williford, LD Access/ Ryder Foundation Fellowship Attorney, Disability Rights Advocates

Professor Marjorie Shultz will discuss her groundbreaking research on law school admissions testing. Professor Shultz’s research culminated in the development of a supplement to the LSAT, which was found to better predict success in law school and law-related professions. Rebecca Williford, a fellow with Disability Rights Advocates in Berkeley, will comment on advocates’ work against admissions testing barriers faced by prospective law students with disabilities.

Tuesday, June 15 Fat Advocacy in a Time of War (“on Obesity”)

Esther Rothblum, Professor of Women’s Studies, San Diego State University

Marilyn Wann, Diversity Trainer and Founder of FAT!SO?

The burgeoning field of Fat Studies challenges cultural assumptions about being fat and examines the profound impact of weight discrimination on all aspects of our lives, including health care, education, employment and housing. The Fat Studies Reader, a recently published anthology, collects essays about health and medicine, social inequality, size-ism in popular culture, and embracing fatness. Anthology co-editor Esther Rothblum will describe her work and continue a dialog about fat as a civil rights issue. She will be joined by longtime fat activist and author Marilyn Wann.

Tuesday, June 22 Redevelopment in the Bayview: Opportunity and Anxiety

Julian Gross, Director, Community Benefits Law Center

Richard Hopson, San Francisco ACORN

Eleanor Williams, San Francisco Organizing Project

This summer, San Francisco is considering a massive redevelopment project in Bayview/Hunters Point, a community that has experienced decades of neglect and concentrated poverty. The proposed project would create over 10,000 units of housing and substantial retail and office space, essentially transforming a large portion of the neighborhood over the next twenty years. Julian Gross, Richard Hopson and Eleanor Williams will review the proposal and community perspectives.

Tuesday, June 29 From Riots to Civil Rights: 50 Years of Transgender Advocacy

Susan Stryker, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Gender Studies, Indiana University

Matt Wood, Staff Attorney, Transgender Law Center

Join filmmaker and professor Susan Stryker (Screaming Queens) and attorney Matt Wood for a lively discussion of the past, present, and future of transgender advocacy. Dr. Stryker’s work explores transgender history, theory, cultural production and political activism. Mr. Wood collaborates with community members and allies to make California a state in which all individuals can fully and freely express their gender identities.

Tuesday, July 6 The Reality of Race: Race and the Law in Modern Society

Richard Thompson Ford, George E. Osborne Professor of Law, Stanford Law School

In his recent book, The Race Card: How Bluffing About Bias Makes Race Relations Worse, Stanford Professor Richard Ford examines the social and legal conflicts surrounding claims of discrimination. In this timely session, Professor Ford will discuss how the intersection of race and the law continues to impact and influence the country.

Tuesday, July 13 Supreme Court Review: Analysis and Discussion of the 2009–10 Term

Pamela S. Karlan, Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Professor of Public Interest Law, Stanford Law School

Drawing on her experiences as a former Supreme Court clerk, constitutional law professor, and founding director of Stanford’s Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, Professor Pamela Karlan will provide her analysis of the 2009–10 Supreme Court term. This term, the Court took up several matters of public importance, including political corporate speech, depictions of animal cruelty, religious symbols on federal land, right of privacy of public employees in electronic communications, confidentiality of the identity of ballot measure petition signers, right of public college religious student group to limit membership, application of Second Amendment to state and local governments, and release of Guantanamo prisoners in the United States.

Tuesday, July 20 Resisting Oppression and Exploitation: The Struggle for Domestic Workers’ Rights

Rocio Avila, Workers’ Rights Co-Coordinator, La Raza Centro Legal

Maria Echaveste, Lecturer in Residence, University of California Berkeley School of Law

Vilma Serralta, Worker Organizer and Plaintiff in Serralta v. Khan

Jill Shenkar, Lead Organizer, National Domestic Workers’ Alliance

More than a million and a half domestic workers labor in United States households. Many have limited English skills and are not aware of employment laws designed to protect them. Come hear from workers, advocates, and a former senior White House and Department of Labor official about the importance of valuing domestic workers, conditions under which domestic workers are forced to labor, recent lawsuits to vindicate the rights of domestic workers, and the movement underway to secure fuller rights for domestic workers at the state, federal and international level.

Tuesday, July 27 Going Green: Creating Green Jobs in a Struggling Economy

Ian Kim, Green-Collar Jobs Campaign Policy Director, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights

Join Ian Kim, director of the Green-Collar Jobs Campaign at the Ella Baker Center, and a representative from Green for All for a discussion of the cutting-edge movement toward creating skilled green jobs for low-income youth and other individuals who face barriers to employment. Panelists will also discuss the relationship between climate policies and economic vitality and social equity.

The Elizabeth J. Cabraser Summer Brown Bag Series, named in honor of a distinguished attorney and friend of the Society, strives to present a wide spectrum of topics and views. Opinions expressed by the speakers do not necessarily reflect those of the Society’s Board and staff or its underwriters.

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